Construction Procedures of Slip-Form Pavement

GEORGE N. MILES, District Engineer, Colorado Department of Highways, Denver

For purposes of discussion it is necessary to define the paver as

the simple, basic slip-form unit first introduced to the construction
industry in the early 1950's. Modifications have taken place since
that time, but the machine is essentially the same. It travels over
a deposit of fresh pre-mixed concrete, vibrating, tamping and forc-
ing it through an orifce which gives dimension, shape and density
to the concrete. Critical to these operations and the best function-
ing of the paver are: (a) the subgrade to be paved must be an accurate
presentation of the plane of the finished concrete pavement; (b) the
concrete itself must be of proper and uniform consistency and may
be a specially designed mixture for best results with the slip-form
machine; and (c) best over-all results will accrue to an operation
so synchronized that the paver is fed at a constant rate and starting
and stopping are reduced to a minimum. These phases of the paving
operation are a joint engineer-contractor responsibility, best handled
by team operation dedicated to both volume and quality.
The paver presents one of the greatest strides in the production
of concrete paving for many years, and shows such a potential to-
ward volume production at minimum cost as to bring about greater
use of Portland cement concrete paving, heretofore considered too
costly by many highway construction agencies.

# T H E SLIP-FORM UNIT with which this discussion is concerned is the basic unit
first introduced to the construction industry in the early 1950's. It carries none of
the electronic control devices that have occasionally been added nor does it involve
special finishing equipment or floats that have been added by various contractors to
meet specific conditions or requirements. Most slip-form pavers even today are
basically the same as the early units. Actually it is a concrete lay-down machine and
functions in a manner similar to the machine used to lay bitummous pavings.
As the paver moves forward straddling a deposit of freshly pre-mixed paving con-
crete, its forward thrusting ram strikes off the mixture in bulldozer fashion, to the
approximate volume that will be required to produce the designed pavement width and
thickness and begins confining the concrete to the traveling form. As the paver con-
tinues forward, a set of vibrators is forced through the mixture, followed by a tamping
bar and vibratmg screed. An orfice, or extrusion meter, through which the fresh
concrete is then forced, gives it dimension, shape, and density while still confined in
moving side-forms. The final machine operation belts off the surface and as the at-
tached trailmg forms are pulled forward, a burlap drag located on the final form bridge
adds texture to the finished surface. As the trailing form slides along the pavement
edges, the machme leaves a ribbon of finished concrete paving that is ready for the
curing compound. This is the unit and the general operation to which the balance of
this discussion is confined. Its most successful use will be contingent on certain basic
construction procedures which are outlined briefly in the following discussion. These
procedures are not new or unusual to any good concrete paving operation.
Probably the prime concern in using this machine is rideability and because the
machine moves on crawler tracks that travel alongthe surface of the subbase, primary
among construction procedures is the accuracy of that subbase. The foundation or base
courses must be firm under the paver tracks. Should the tracks dig in, there will be
a depression in the concrete as it is finally cast. Should the subgrade present a hump.
the paver will follow the grade of this hump and most certainly produce an erratic final
roadway surface. The wheel base of the tracks on the machine, being some 22 ft long,
tends to produce a uniformly good riding surface, free from choppiness but will not take
out inherent humps and hollows or long undulations in a poorly finished grade. The very
nature of the paver's operation makes it absolutely necessary that the tracks be pre-
sented with a subbase that will be identical to the plane of the pavement surface expected.
Thickness of the slab, crown, or other final surface shape is varied by adjustment of
the screed.
Beginning with the subbase and continuing through all further courses of foundationmg
materials, each consecutive layer should be shaped and consolidated to accurate grade
control stakes. On the final subgrade surface, such staking might well be set at 50-ft
intervals on tangent grades and 25-ft intervals on vertical curves. As the subbase is
brought within reasonable limits of elevation, it is occasionally better to relax further
elevation controls in favor of the long wheel-based land planers or other leveling equip-
ment. At this point interest lies in achieving a subbase free from long undulations as
well as any choppiness.
The use of the best available base course aggregates or cement-treated bases will
be of great value to the preparation of the subbase as well as the ultimate service life
of the pavement. Such subbase treatment should be designed for sufficient width to
accommodate the paver's tracks. K the final subbase has any tendency to displace
under equipment traffic and especially in the area of the paver's tracks, consideration
should be given to restricting or even denying use of that subbase to the haulmg equip-
ment. Uncontrolled movement of haulage equipment can also contribute to non-uniform
subgrade density — a particular problem in areas of swelling soil.
Final subbase shape is often achieved by use of a track-mounted subgrade planer.
This unit presents a template that can be varied to produce any given final surface
shape — after the general plane of the subbase has been achieved. The planer operates
from crawler tracks that travel the same area as the paver itself.
The subbase to be paved must be a firm and accurate presentation of the desired
plane of the finished pavement. Once this is accomplished, good rideability can be
expected. Other procedures can improve the ride even further but they are not quite
so essential.
For the machine to perform at its best, the consistency of the concrete mixture
should be maintained as perfectly as possible. Mixtures too wet or inconsistent in
either moisture content or aggregate ratios will give trouble both in edge slump and
resulting rideability. Because aggregate ratios are readily controlled, the prime
complication comes from moisture variation in the aggregate itself. Because it is
impractical to run a moisture test and make proper adjustment of each concrete batch,
it IS necessary to stock-pile aggregates for such period of time as may be necessary
to bring about reasonable equalization of moisture content throughout the stock piles.
Uniformity of concrete mixture, however obtained, is of prime importance.
It has been the Department's practice to run paving concrete with a maximum \%
in. slump. The slip-form paver, particularly one equipped with a battery of stinger-
type vibrators, produces a final paving shape that tends to stand very nicely after the
sliding forms have passed. Slumping at the edges, prevalent in wet or oversanded
mixtures, has at most been a matter of % in. which will occur at the edge and taper
out to zero within the first 12 in. from the pavement's edge. This has not been a pre-
valent condition due to the ease with which it can be handled and it is thought that
vehicles traveling the very edge would not notice it perceptibly.
The type of vibrating equipment used with any given machine will probably require
minor adjustment of the concrete mix or the vibratory cycle or both. High-speed
vibration together with relatively high travel speed of the paver can produce a swell or
surge m the concrete as it passes out of the orfice behind the machine. This will tend
toward a choppiness in the pavement surface but it is readily detected m the hand
straight-edgmg that normally follows. The straight-edging and any corrective hand
finishmg must be completed while the concrete is within the trailing forms.
Concrete mixtures dedicated to specific use with the slip-form paver have not been
set up, but it IS believed this will be done on future work. The following typical paving
mixture producing 28-day minimum strength of 3,000 psi has been used with good re-
sults:
Class of concrete — Pavement
Air-entraining agent — Protex
Quantity of air-entraining agent — 2 oz
Cement (lb)-94.0
Fine aggregate (lb) — 173.0
Coarse aggregate (lb) — 346.0
Water (lb)-41. 5
Slump (in.) - 1.75
The foUowmg mechanical operations are considered pertinent to good operation of
the paver. Smoothest pavements are occurring when proper synchronization between
the delivery of concrete and the travel speed of the machine is maintained. Starting
and stopping of the paver should be held to a minimum. The start once more tends to
produce a surge of concrete as it passes out of the orfice. As a further precaution
agamst this problem, vibrators and tamper bar shall be stopped during any delay in
forward movement of the paver. This is also advisable as a precaution against segre-
gation of the aggregates immediately around the vibrators.
Care may well be taken in the manner of depositing concrete from the mixer directly
in front of the strike-off ram. The ram, to function best, should be carrying a constant
load, from side to side, keeping the ram as nearly uniformly loaded as possible.
Concrete spillage that may get under the tracks of the paver is to be avoided. Oc-
casionally an overload at one corner of the ram will result in such spillage. The tracks,
being the key to vertical control, will walk up over that spillage raising the orfice and
creating a bump or roll in the final product.
Where hauling equipment is to be permitted on the finished subbase, constant care
must be taken that all humps or depressions are smoothed out immediately in front of
the paver. This is particularly necessary in the area that the paver tracks will follow.
It is also of concern in maintaining a uniform slab thickness.
No comment has been made concerning the edge alignment of the pavement resulting
from slip-form operation. Actually this is almost a negligible problem; first, because
in running a single 24-ft paving width a deviation of as much as 1 in. from the straight
line would be unnoticed; and second, the machine operator simply keeps a suspended
plumb bob, on the front of the machine, traveling along a pre-set string Ime. Normal
deviation should be very minor. Curvature up to 4 degrees is negotiated in the same
manner and without difficulty.
As in any other concrete paving operation, use of the slip-form paver on level or
near level grades will produce best results, however, the slip-form unit has been used
on grades up to 5 percent and no serious problem in rideability or choppiness that would
not be experienced in an ordinary formed paving operation, has been found. If it is a
practical thing workwise, the operation of the paver upgrade will produce a smoother
riding surface than will its operation downgrade. It is felt that grades up to 4 percent
deserve little or no consideration as to direction of operation, however in excess of
4 percent grades, an attempt is made to operate that paver on the uphill approach. The
mere fact that the machine demands uniformly stiffer concrete mixtures that will tend
to stand rather than slump, actually reduces the problem. Further, the problem of
edge slump is foremost in the contractor's mind. As a result, it receives more than
normal attention, thus often achieving better riding concrete surfaces on the steeper
grades than otherwise would result.
In November 1959, using the Bureau of Public Roads roughometer, a device for
measuring roughness in terms of total vertical inches per mile of roadway, it was
found that on a 20-mi project involving horizontal curvature of one degree and maximum
3 percent grades, the average roughness was 78 in. per mile. Variation in this meas-
urement indicated that there were sections of roadway showing as little as 66 in. per
mile and other sections running as high as 94 in. per mile. Here the slip-form paver
was used to place a 24-ft ribbon of concrete 8 in. thick. TTiis particular section car-
ried no crown whatsoever but was sloped at 0.015 ft per foot from the median to the
outside shoulder. The 24-ft width was placed in one pass and all contraction joints
were sawn. Sawn jomts have been used for the last eight years, formed joints being
used only at the end of the day's operation or at a bridge approach where the new pave-
ment is being brought into a structure approach slab.
To form joints in conjunction with the slip-form paver presents only this problem:
that more hand finishing is necessary at each of the joints and of course this hand
finishmg must be done rapidly because the paving slab will only be within the area of
the traveling form for a very short while unless it is desirable to shut the paver down
while the joint is fmished.
The 78 in. per mile of roughness measurement certainly is not a record nor is it
particularly good but it is believed that no more roughness than this is not a critical
thing. It might be well to consider that at the time the measurement was made the
pavement had been m use for some three months. Also that this particular pavement
slab was placed over several areas of swelling-type soil. Therefore, it might be
expected that there is some contribution to this early roughness by reason of the action
of that soil.
At this time it is very difficult to form a comparison directly between the rough-
ometer figures or any other measure of roughness, resulting from the use of the slip-
form paver as compared with conventional paving methods. The Department has many
formed jobs but they are quite old and relatively few that would be comparable with the
more recent paving work. After any section of concrete paving has been put to use for
even a short period of time it is no longer comparable with another one in a totally dif-
ferent location and over a totally different subgrade soil. Thus it is felt that any com-
parison would lead only to erratic thinking in terms of slip-form results. Actually
the slip-form paver has been used in projects where as little as 42 m. per mile of
roughness has resulted. These projects have been placed over ideal subbases and up
to this time are more the exception than the rule.
Being favorably impressed with the slip-form paver from Iowa operation, it was
first used in Colorado in the summer of 1955 under special provisions of the Depart-
ment's standard specifications. Being further impressed with the early results and
the apparent economy, the specifications were revised to permit regular use of the
machine. This revision was permissive but broad, saying, "Where a slip-form paver
I S employed, all reference in the preceding parts of this specification referring to forms
shall be considered to be non-applicable and procedures shall be adopted which will
result in a satisfactory end product". This revised specification presumed that an
equal product would result.
The Department's experience, since permitting the slip-form method, has been
surface smoothness that was equal to, and in most cases better than that obtained with
conventional forms and the usual equipment train. Therefore, the Department is con-
tinuing to make this an acceptable method of construction. Specification for surface
tolerance is the same — /a-in. from a 12-ft straight edge — regardless of the method
the contractor chooses to use. In fact, with new developments in electronic controlling
devices being mtroduced today, more accurate control of the slip-form operation be-
comes possible. This is still relatively new equipment and many further improvements
can be expected. Even nov/, the equipment with some modification, has been used to
lay a reinforced concrete pavement using woven wire reinforcing fabric.
It is no longer a speculative matter regarding the cost of pavement placed with the
slip-form as compared with the conventional paving methods. Fifty cents or more per
square yard of pavement can be saved. Greatest economy has yet to be realized by
use of the slip-form machine. This is due in part to the limited number of the machines
in use and the fact that those contracting agencies who have the slip-form paver find
they do not have to squeeze their cost accounts too tightly to become a low bidder. Thus
it is felt that they are not yet bidding at the most efficient level of operating cost plus
reasonable profit. It is further believed that the maximum volume of which the unit is
capable has not been reached in most contract operations. The machine is presently
capable of producing up to 10 ft per minute of 8-in. concrete slab if properly fed and
operated under reasonably good conditions. As a practical matter, however, no paving
effort will feed the machine at such a rate. Usually production has been controlled by
the capacity of a single dual-drum paving mixer. This operation produces 2,000 ft per
day, or somewhat less than one-half the slip-form paver's capacity.
In the slip-form paving operation, as m any other, the equipment will perform m as
satisfactory a manner as the contractor's organization and skill will permit. A poor
job can be done; but just as surely, if there is effort and care put into the operation of
that pavmg unit, an excellent product will result.